


Magic Man

by rorywritesstuff



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Canon Gay Character, Depression, Gay, Gay Male Character, Gay Sex, Grief/Mourning, Loss, M/M, Magic, Street & Stage Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-05
Updated: 2016-09-05
Packaged: 2018-08-13 04:25:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7962349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rorywritesstuff/pseuds/rorywritesstuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where Billy is a magician and Teddy is in need of some magic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Magic Man

The sun was low, but it was only six in the evening; Teddy lay, on his back, a towel over his eyes, and tried to cry.   
His phone buzzed. He ignored it. It buzzed again and, slowly- so slowly that the phone buzzed twice more before he got to it- he rose, took the towel off and checked the new messages.   
They were all from Kate, imploring him to come out with her that evening. In reply he sent a single word, "sick", and then put the phone down on the table. He was hungry, but there was nothing left in the fridge but bottled water, now too cold to drink.   
There was a light tap against the window. Teddy turned just in time to see a small stone fly into the pane. And another. He walked over and looked down. Standing on the street, three floors below, was Kate.   
He opened the window and she called up "You don't look sick!"   
"I've got the flu."  
"Come on then, let's hear you sneeze!"  
"It doesn't work that way. I can't do it on command."  
"That's what she said!"  
The joke was juvenile and not really funny, but Teddy smiled anyway. Kate always put him in a good mood.   
"Come on, you big faker, let me up!"  
Teddy went over to the intercom and buzzed her up. 

Teddy offered Kate some tea but she refused, "Oh no, I know how that goes: you go to put the kettle on, I ask how you are and then suddenly it's three hours later and you're crying your eyes out and I never get my bloody drink. We're going out."  
"I promise to get you any drink you ask for."  
"A frozen margerita."  
"Okay, I promise to get you any drink that involves water and a tea bag."  
"No, too late, I decided." She beckoned him towards the door, "You promised and now you have to deliver."  
Teddy sat down at the table, "Tough. I'm not budging."  
"Oh, come on, Teddy: Cassie scored us tickets to a magic show." She trilled these last two words, as though this would somehow make it sound more appealing.   
"How old do you think I am?"  
"Old enough to experience your first drunk magic show."   
"That's not a thing."  
Kate shook her head excitedly, "No, it totally is: you get blasted, go see a magic show, and because you're so schknockered, it all seems a thousand times more impressive. Cassie and I do it all the time."  
"You go to magic shows all the time?"  
"Well, not just magic shows: poetry slams, operas, art galleries, town council meetings. Really, anything can be fun when you're drunk."  
"I don't think I'm going to be a fun drunk at the moment." Teddy hoped this bout of self-pity might dissuade Kate from pushing further.   
"Then you can hold our hair while Cassie and I vomit."   
"Sounds like a riot, but I'm gonna stay in tonight."  
Kate sighed, "Okay. This is the venue if you change your mind." She pulled a flyer from out of her bag and put it down on the table; it showed a man with dark hair in a smart scarlet suit, holding a hand out towards the camera, a playing card slotted between his fingers.   
Something about the picture fascinated Teddy, he picked up the flyer and studied it a moment. Unseen by him, Kate smiled.   
"Is that the magician?" Teddy asked, trying to sound casual.   
"Yeah. Cassie knows him, apparently." Kate knew she mustn't overplay her hand.   
"He's..." Teddy didn't know what he was. The man's eyes were dark, and judging from the umbra around them, he hadn't slept in a month; his hands were slight and his hair slicked back. On his brow, he wore a stronge metal headband, with runes inset- it looked utterly ridiculous, but somehow appealing. Teddy felt a stirring deep inside. "Alright, I'll go."  
Kate snorted and snatched the flyer from out of his hands. "Come on, then, Mr. Predictable." She linked her arm through his and lead him out of his flat.

The bar was small but not crowded; The Scarlet Wizard, as the magician styled himself, seemed to be none too big a draw, despite his flyers decrying him 'Amazing...Truly spell-binding!"  
Cassie had bailed on them. Apparently Vic was back in town and they were getting back together or still hashing out the divorce or something, Teddy had lost interest a while back. Still, Kate was obstinate she could use their connection to meet the magician.   
They bought drinks and sat in the front row. The lights dimmed for just a second and then there suddenly stood on stage the young man from the flyer, resplendant in the same red suit. Everyone applauded and Teddy looked for a trap door or perhaps a secret entrance from behind the stage, but saw none.   
"Good evening!" The Scarlet Wizard boomed.   
"Good evening," the audience called back.  
"How are we doing?" He asked, walking up and down the stage slightly, "Are we good?"  
People lazily responded "Yes."  
"Good, good. Everyone's happy? No one's sad? No one's crushingly depressed? No one's overwrought with the tragedies of existence?" Here, Kate turned to look at Teddy, and he wondered if maybe Cassie had told the magician they'd be in the audience. The Scarlet Wizard continued, "I'm asking because life isn't always easy, it isn't always fair and it's very seldom pretty. For example, ma'am," here he turned to Kate, "You have a centipede in your drink."  
As one, the audience turned to look at Kate's margerita glass and saw that indeed, there was a great black centipede curled along the rim, writhing. Kate screamed and looked like she was about to cast the glass aside when the magician plucked it deftly from her hand, picked the bug off, and held it up to the light, examining it. "Oh sorry, my mistake," he said airily, "that was an olive." He turned around his hand to show them and everyone gasped: only a single black olive sat in his palm. "Still; waste not, want not." He downed the cocktail in one handed the glass back to a stunned kate, along with the olive. "Here. Also, there's a replacement under your seat, on the house." Kate reached down and found two full glasses waiting for her, "And one for your friend," the magician added, winking. 

The show was very, very good. Teddy didn't need the alcohol to be enjoy it- every trick was impressive, every move disarming. At one point, the magician asked for a volunteer and although Kate grabbed Teddy's hand and held it high in the air, shaking it madly, the magician picked a grey-haired lady in the third row, seemingly making her disappear into thin air and then rematerialise in the lighting booth.   
When it ended, everyone in the audience stood up, whooping and applauding widly. The magician bowed, smiling and called over the cheers, "This is so great, ladies and gentlemen, but what I could really use is some more money!" The noise abated. "Well, that shut you up, didn't it?" Everyone laughed.  
Suddenly Kate called, "We'll buy you a drink!"   
"Done." The magician replied and the audience laughed and clapped again. The Scarlet Wizard dismounted the stage and stood next to Kate and Teddy, "What are we waiting for?"  
As they were leaving, people kept clapping the magician on the back, or grabbing his hand, shaking it violently and telling him how much they enjoyed his show. They reached the bar and Teddy asked, "What are you drinking?"  
"Vodka, neat."  
"A margerita." Kate piped up.   
Teddy ordered and then they all sat down.   
"Is your name really Scarlet?" Kate asked.  
The magician laughed, "No. It's Billy."  
"I prefer Scarlet."  
"So do I- it's why I chose it."   
Kate was resting her elbow on the table, propping up her head in her hands, gazing at the magician. "You're really pretty."  
Billy smiled but said nothing.   
"We're friends of Cassie." Teddy commented.   
Billy took a sip of vodka and nodded, "I know- she told me to look out for you."  
"What did she say?" Kate asked, her eyes sparkling.   
"'Look for the tiny brunette and the tall slab of sadness.'"  
"That's us!" Kate clinked her drink against Teddy's.   
"I'm not that tall." Teddy said.   
"But you are that sad." Billy observed.   
Suddenly, Kate stood up and walked away from the table.   
"Was it something I said?"  
"She pretends she doesn't smoke," Teddy explained.   
"So she just leaves at random intervals?"  
"Pretty much."  
"She's not very good at lying then, is she?" There was a small pause and Billy asked, "Did you like the show?"  
"It was amazing. Incredible. I don't know how you did half of that."  
"Maybe I'm really magic."   
"Wouldn't that be nice?" Teddy sighed.   
"Wow, you really are sad." The magician finished his vodka in one gulp, "And, somehow, I'm still sober." He raised his hand to get the bartender's attention and pointed at his glass, "Do you want another?"  
"Yes, please."  
"Do you want a vodka? Yes, I think you do." He held up two fingers at the bartender.  
Teddy thought this was rather rude- to order for another person- and told the magician so.   
"Well, I'm paying." He explained.  
"You are?"  
"I've got a tab. They're never gonna make me pay it back. And besides," he picked up a coaster, put it over the top of Teddy's beer and then tipped the glass over. Even though there had been an inch of liquid left, nothing fell out; the glass was empty, "You need something stronger."   
"Don't tell me what I need."   
"Okay, you tell me: what do you need?" Teddy was silent. "Alright, I'll settle for what you want."  
Teddy looked around, "Shouldn't Kate be back by now?"  
"Yes, but she's hoping I'll sleep with you. If it helps, I will."   
"Oh." Teddy felt a spike in his stomach; this man was rude and more than a little manipulative but also very, very attractive. He had a magnetism like none Teddy had ever felt. "Right here?"  
Billy smiled and shrugged, "If you like." The two vodkas arrived and without missing a beat, the magician downed one of them, "But I was suggesting we go back to yours."  
A frisson of excitement ran through Teddy's nervous system. "Okay."  
They found Kate outside, with a cigarette in her mouth that she insisted she was just holding for someone else. Billy rather bluntly explained their intentions and Kate smiled, clapped Teddy on the shoulder and happily waved them off. 

They reached Teddy's flat, which was freezing. Teddy turned up the heat and then went to the kettle.  
"I don't drink tea." Billy said behind him.  
"Just for me then." Teddy put on the water and then turned. "I drink almost nothing else."  
Billy looked around the flat, "People kept on giving it to me when my brother died. I can't drink it now. Unconscious associations."  
"Oh, I'm so sorry."  
"No great loss: it's only tea."  
"I meant about your brother."   
The magician sat down at the table, "He was a stage manager. And an addict. He overdosed on heroin backstage five minutes before I was meant to go on."  
"That's awful."  
"It's funny- I've given up tea but not on performing. You'd think it'd be the other away around." He said this without sadness or even apparent regret.   
Teddy didn't know what to say. He sat down at the table and tried to examine Billy's face, but the light was casting shadows in all the wrong places.   
"So, are you down for this or what?" Billy stood up and divested himself of the red jacket.  
Teddy suddenly realised, "We didn't give you time to change."   
"I didn't need to," Billy answered, fast unbuttoning his shirt, "This is just what I was wearing today." Off came the shirt, revealing Billy's smooth, contoured chest.  
"Okay." Teddy stood, lifted off his own t-shirt and, following Billy's suit, slipped out of his trousers. They were both wearing tight briefs- Teddy in dull black, Billy in bright red. They stood thus for a second, admiring each other, the air growing hotter by the second.   
"Shall we?" Billy asked, and then lay down on the sofa.   
Teddy obliged. 

In the early hours of the morning, after they had moved to the bed, both were still awake though silent, staring at the ceiling.   
At last, Teddy spoke, "I don't know why I get so sad."  
Billy gave no clue that he was listening.  
"I just- I feel like there's a blanket over me. A heavy, suffocating blanket. And I'm trying to crawl out from under the edges, but it's so big and so thick and so heavy and...warm. And I just want to lie down and let it cover me. I hate it, but it's so much easier than moving." He turned to look at Billy, still busied with the ceiling. "And you, you have so much reason to be sad-"  
"I'm not sad."  
"I know, but-"  
"Neither are you. You're depressed. There's a difference."   
Teddy looked at the other man's face and saw the definite etchings of anger. "Are you- Did I say something?"  
"Why should I be sad? Because of Tommy?"  
"Was that his name? Your brother?"  
"Yes. And it doesn't make me sad. It happened, he's dead. There's nothing to be done."  
Teddy furrowed his brow, "How do you do that? How do you let go of things? How do you not just feel the weight of everything pressing down on you?"  
"It's easy. I'm not depressed."  
"Lucky."   
Billy suddenly got up and swung his legs down over the bed.   
"Where are you going?"  
"Home. I'm not a therapist."   
Teddy blanched. "I don't need therapy."  
"You don't know what you need. You hardly even know what you want, beyond the calls of your cock." He stood up and stretched. "But don't feel bad: no one does." He stood in the doorway, silhouetted by the light, naked and glorious.  
"You seem to." Teddy retorted.   
"Yes, well, I'm magic."   
He disappeared.


End file.
